J. Crew Teams With Esquire on Style Across America Parkas for Charity

Our Style Across America project is complete. These new parkas help tell the story.

Prior to setting off on our Style Across America road trip last May, we thought it would be fun to get an iconic American brand to do a fashion spin-off that reflected the mythical nature of the road trip in this country's history. We reached out to J. Crew and they were game.

We agreed that covering Army parkas with badges from our travels would be an appropriate—and stylish—homage to the now largely-vanished practice of bikers, wanderers, and travelers charting their heroic wanderings in embroidered patches on leather or denim jackets, or with stickers on their luggage. So we gathered badges from vintage stores, Goodwill locations, and truck stops along our route through 15 states and 3,500 miles from New York to Santa Monica Pier, the official end of Route 66.

Upon returning to New York, we sent the collection to J. Crew's Creative Director, Frank Muytjens, and his design team, who set to work distressing and over-painting our badges, then appliquéing on three identical J. Crew parkas. The result, thanks to the ingenuity of Frank and his team, is threeuniqueone-off commemorations of Esquire's trip across America that will be sold through a silent auction on eBay'scharitypages, with revenue going to Career Gear, a non-profit that provides professional clothing and mentoring to help men in poverty develop their careers.

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